


From the inside out

by kelmo27



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: AU, Adam Parrish is a magician, Also Adam thinking he has a crush on Declan is used as a plot device., Cabeswater is a metaphor, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Physical Abuse, Longing, M/M, Memories of abuse and neglect no active depictions, Misunderstandings, Non-specific Historically Inaccurate Magical Setting, alternative universe, implied/referenced emotional neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-06-30 10:50:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19851607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelmo27/pseuds/kelmo27
Summary: Adam Parrish has found peace and quiet for himself. Besides the stranger by the river who he might be in love with, everything is fine, until Ronan Lynch breaks into his world and destroys the quiet and threatens to disrupt his peace.





	1. Home

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Kate (@MediocreK here) for beta reading and the support and forcing me to complete this.
> 
> Find me -  
> @Kelmo27 on Tumblr
> 
> I made 0 attempts to write historically accurate anything but it's particularly noticeable in the dialogue.
> 
> This is an idea that wouldn't leave me alone, I'm also writing an original novel, so, unfortunately, this fic got whatever was left over after my novel writing, it is fluffy and equally angsty and it absolutely could use more drafts and passes, but even so, I'm still posting it as is. I've finished writing this, so I'll update at least weekly (probably more often) until it's all up. Also, I haven't written fan fiction for about 10 years, maybe even 15. I am totally fine with criticism if you want to toss it my way.

Adam sunk down into the soft grass that seemed to reach up and cradle him to a gentle rest. He flung a hand over his eyes and sighed contentedly. He had never in his life felt this feeling of security and contentment, as if he was exactly where he was meant to be and doing exactly what he wanted to do, what he was destined to do. He could feel the forest sing in his veins as if it were the only thing sustaining him. When he had first stumbled on the forest it had legitimately sustained him, the fruit had appeared from nowhere just as his stomach hungered for something. The branches of the large weeping willow limbs had sagged low like a blanket on the colder nights. The grass has grown around his body to hold him. He’d come from a place where people weren’t to be trusted and he never had enough currency to buy the love he craved, even in the smallest measure.  
Here in the forest, love seemed to be given, it was what filled Adam’s depleted form with life more and more, from the absolute depth of nothing. He hadn’t been able to return the endless affection the plants had offered him, and yet they continued to lavish him with it, mending him from the inside out. He had no idea how much time had passed from when he had arrived to now, and it didn’t really matter because now he felt strong enough to return the unconditional love and protection of the forest with his own. He attended to the needs the forest whispered in his veins instead of his ears, he made the slightest adjustments to the energy, not knowing why only to see months later the sprouts of another beautiful plant begin to grow. He dug into the ground with his hands, to help the babies grow and breathe. He took from one section of the forest, and spread or replanted in another, ensuring the perfect balance in all areas, and he would carry water from one end of the forest to another if required, without protest to make sure his family, his home was thriving.  
Adam wanted nothing more for the rest of his life, he was happy to be a servant to the forest and in return have the unconditional love and gratitude of the forest in return. Adam huffed at that, he could lie well when needed, but he didn’t make a habit of lying to himself. There was one thing he yearned for. A person that he had only seen once, for the briefest of moments, but had instantly made his heart race. His body straightened and the song of the forest roared through every part of him, setting him on fire. Tall with dark curls, he’d ached to touch him, even without seeing his face.  
It wasn’t his intention, but the reeds had leaned in towards the naked man in the river, the roots at the bottom of the water had started to wind their way up his long legs, and Adam had wanted nothing more than to pull him closer before he knew what he was doing. The man had startled with an explosive laugh and Adam had broken the connection with the plants instantly and turned his eyes away, breaking contact. He fled into the forest to his well-hidden home, heart still racing and his ears consumed with that laugh. He’d made a concerted effort to avoid any human life in the forest from that point on, he hadn’t been ready to see him again, even if he had, he didn’t know what he wanted from him, or what he would be willing to give up for him, so it was best to ignore him.  
There was a screech of a bird above his head, and Adam smiled, the wildlife in his forest were placid, exotic and overly friendly. The animals filled the forest with movement more akin to that of a human, it took the edge of the solitude of his life. He heard a rustle to his left, and thought nothing of it, until a sword sliced through the thickets that hide him from the world He felt like someone had punched him in the stomach, as he stared in horror as a human burst through the greenery. Dressed in a black cloak, with a high and heavy cowl and that obscured his face, Adam dropped his gaze very slowly to the sword, sticking out in front of the human, his eyes travelled the length of the sword as he became hyper-focused on the point of it. With silence screaming around him Adam moved just a little placing both hands palm down on the ground.  
“What the fuck are you doing here?” The voice demanded.  
Adam didn’t look up while still staring at the point of the sword, “I live here.”  
“Like hell!”  
Adam was angry, he was scared in his forest and he hated the shift. He’d never felt afraid in this place. He continued to keep his head directed at the point of the sword so the man wouldn’t see his eyes go white, as he called on the forest to come to his aid, he could feel the forest like an extension of himself. The trees swung their limbs to knock the intruder off his feet, and the vines curled around his body tethering him to the ground. The sword continued to stand out from the man, untouched by the vines, Adam wouldn’t risk their harm, now that he was contained. Adam came back into himself, keeping one hand against the earth, as he turned to take in the full shape of the human.  
Adam couldn’t stand, so all he could see was the long male form, legs clad in tight leather breeches, a cloak fanned out over the man's head, some flashes of something dark against the skin there. “This is my home. If you touch a single living thing here, I’ll tighten these vines around your neck until you die. You need some respect when you enter this place, and you’ll give it or I’ll take it.”  
The man tried to thrash against the vines and then finally gave up with a sigh of resignation. “What the fuck…?”


	2. Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ronan wanted.

Ronan wasn’t sure how he was being pinned to the ground in his own goddamn forest. He had created this forest out of his dreams and the only people who knew it existed beside him was his brothers and his best friend. This wasn’t a very devoted greeting, however, it felt so jarringly familiar he wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted to do about it. Ronan eased the tension out of his body and laid still, ignoring the words from the intruder. This had happened to him before. After his parents had been killed, Ronan had been unable to see straight in the world anymore. He’d retreated here to Cabeswater, and holed himself up away from everyone else, especially his brothers. Gansey had still come to visit, annoyingly often, but Ronan had just wanted to lose himself in his misery.  
His dreams had turned from soft and silly things too horrific nightmares that he couldn’t control, that he would sometimes bring home with him. That’s why he had a sword in this place. He never knew when one might be hiding, somehow having escaped from both his dreams and his castle before he had been able to come out of the paralysis that held him helpless in his bed. He’s been okay the way he was. He’d been fucking miserable but he thought it was fitting since he didn’t know how to be anything else anymore. There was nothing that could bring back his father, and the part of Ronan that had built his life from that point on was convinced he had died along with his mother and father. The red blood from his father's dead body leaching through his skin to steal his soul, what was left was a body without a purpose beyond suffering.  
The first time he’d noticed anything, he’d woken up from a dream and a night horror was leaning over him, it’s beak snapping and its claws dragging along the stone near his bed, and yet it didn’t attack. Vines were winding there way up its body, slowly, and the night horror wasn’t trying to escape them. The monster had a strange look on it’s broken face, something that Ronan had never seen before, some kind of sentience Ronan had been sure his night horrors lacked. The vines lifted the night horror from its purchase on the ground, and without a sound, they had turned it on his side and the vines and the night horror had travelled out of his balcony and by the time he could move they had disappeared into the forest below. He’s been sure it was Cabeswater protecting him in his most vulnerable state, He hadn’t known before that Cabeswater was capable of that But the forest was a dream thing it wasn’t hard to suspend belief.  
It hadn’t stopped there, he’d once gone down the river and fallen asleep naked in the aftermath of a swim. It didn’t take much to burn his skin red raw, but he had woken to the cool shade of a nearby row of bushes, which he was sure hadn’t been there when he’d fallen asleep. He’d woken one night from a dreamless sleep, to find himself loosely wrapped in vines, not trying to strangle him, but holding him, caressing him even pulling the blankets over him, it reminded him of his mother when he was young, and he’d been unable to keep the sobs away. Time and again the vines, the tree’s everything in Cabeswater seemed to align to protect and comfort him. His night horrors had reduced, and he had started to feel a peace he had never expected to feel again. It was as if Cabeswater was trying to heal him from inside out.  
These vines right now, trapping him to the ground, did they come from Cabeswater or from the other man? Why would his own dream forest try and restrain him when it had only ever comforted and assisted him before? Cabeswater knew him and knew his love for it. It had to be the boy with his hands pressed to the ground out of his eyesight. The intruder that Ronan hadn’t known about until earlier in the day when Chainsaw, his dream raven, had alerted him to a human in Cabeswater. The intruder had said this was his home? He’d been living here for how long? How had he got in? Ronan felt like he should have at least had some kind of sense of an intruder, this was his dream place, wouldn’t they have some kind of telepathic or psychic connection? Ronan didn’t know if that’s how this all worked but he felt like it should in cases like this.  
“This is my home,” Ronan said finally. “This is my land.” He clarified.  
“What?” The voice drawled surprise evident in the soft and warm tone.  
“I live here. I have lived here for years. I’m Ronan Lynch.” He didn’t know if that would make any difference, if his name carried any social weight or reputation anymore, he had been a recluse for over a year now, and even those who had once known his name had probably forgotten he was still alive.  
He heard movement and then the face of the other man swam into his vision above his head, and Ronan took a slow and steadying breath, he was an ethereal beauty. His warm skin and his light brown hair, and those oddly cool blue eyes that seemed so out of place in what otherwise looked like summer in human form. Ronan tried to move his hand but it was still stuck tight with the vines, maybe it wasn’t the other man doing it.  
Ronan had first thought the other man was just trying to confirm his identity by looking at him, but that wasn’t at all what he was doing. The sinewy man was weighing up Ronan’s very soul, or his void of one, with those cool blue eyes. His eyes flicked up and down and side to side, taking his measure, judging him completely. “I’m not here to do harm. Not to you or Cabeswater.” Ronan said through gritted teeth because he felt like he had to defend himself from whatever the other man might find lacking.  
He tilted his head and blinked, “Cabeswater?”  
“That’s the name of the forest.”  
The man was testing that somewhere inside of himself, and if Ronan wasn’t tied to the ground he might have been mesmerised by it. He wanted. He wanted to be freed. He wanted to know his name. He wanted so badly it hurt.  
The man knelt to the ground, and because he didn’t hide his face this time, Ronan saw his eyes go white and the vines started to disappear from his body, but to who knows where. Ronan sat up and dropped his sword beside him, he stretched to make sure all his limbs worked, by the time he was sure he was unharmed, he looked up and straight into blue eyes, close to his own. He could just reach out, there was hardly any distance between them. Ronan didn’t want to look away but he forced himself too. “How long have you been here for?” Ronan asked standing up slowly.  
The other man stood up too, he was dressed in a brown tunic that looked worn out, and tattered pants with the permanent stain of mud at the bottom of them, he didn’t have any shoes on. “I don’t know.” He said with a slight frown. “I didn’t pay attention. A while.”  
“What’s your name?” Ronan asked gruffly.  
He hesitated for a moment as if he was trying to think his way out of a problem. “Parrish.” He said finally.  
Parrish, was that a first or a last name?. The name had a new and exciting flavour on his tongue.  
“Look, it’s going to be dark soon, come to my place, you can eat dinner and we can work out what to do with all of this.” Ronan offered.  
Parrish looked like he was trying to find a way to turn down the offer.  
“This is my land, I want to know who you are and why you’re staying here.” Ronan pointed out, his oldest brother would be shocked at how diplomatic he was being.  
Parrish furrowed his brow and then gave a small sigh and nodded. “Alright.”


	3. Magician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s my mother's garden,” Ronan said through gritted teeth.

Parrish seemed hesitant to follow him, the whole way back to his home, the kind of home that had a ceiling, and walls, and contained fireplaces, like a normal home. Ronan used the time he was traipsing ahead to effectively ignore the other man and instead worry at his thoughts. He was pretty sure Parrish was the cause of the vines, that he had been comforting Ronan for a year now. But how had he known that Ronan was grieving? How had he known about the night horrors? Ronan had never met him before, and from the reaction, he’d received Parrish didn’t know about him either. So how did he know exactly when he was feeling the worst? How did he control the night terror? Was he some kind of magician? What exactly did his powers allow him to do? How did one become a magician? Did they have a guild? Was it an apprenticeship? Were their other magicians just lying around in his forest? Did they all have the same blue eyes? Was there some kind of courting ritual you had to observe to woo a magician? Or was he a wizard? Could a man be a witch?  
He turned around to see if Parrish was still followed when he saw him at a dead stop a dozen steps behind and stare ahead of them both. Ronan turned slowly and rolled his eyes, there stood his oldest brother, Declan. Ronan knew exactly why he had shown up unannounced this time (like every time). While Ronan was always irritated by it, it was even more irritating because he was going to have to introduce his brother to the magic-user behind him, and Ronan didn’t know enough about him to want to share.  
“What do you want?” Ronan snapped, and looked back to Parrish and gesturing for him to come forward.  
“Making friends?” Declan asked his sharp blue eyes looking between the pair of them as if trying to make a puzzle piece fit forcefully into a puzzle.  
“What do you want?” Ronan asked again he came to stand in Declan’s personal space. They were being particularly civil since they had hashed out their issues two months before. Ronan most of the time felt like Declan was trying to help, even if every time he did it was ass backwards. He’d also stopped bloodying Declan’s nose every time they met. It was a compromise.  
“Nice to meet you I’m Declan Lynch.” Ronan huffed at Declan and his manners and diplomacy. He would have eventually introduced them, probably.  
“Adam Parrish.” Ronan frowned and looked back at Adam Parrish. His brother got his full name? It fit the other man so painfully well, Ronan didn’t know if he could ever forget his name now. The look of him paired with the new full name churned something in his stomach and he wanted to push Declan on his ass. He only debated it for 30 seconds before dismissing it, which was personal growth.  
“Nice to meet you. What brings you here, I was under the impression this was,” Declan looked pointedly at Ronan who snorted at him, “exclusively for Ronan’s private use.”  
Adam frowned at Declan and then looked to Ronan and said slowly, “I feel like that’s a complicated question, best answered another day. If you two have business I can come back another time.” Adam offered.  
“No, I invited you here for dinner, Declan is uninvited he can come back another day,” Ronan said, the brief thought that he could shoulder barge Declan so he got the point had crossed his mind, but he showed so much restraint he should get an award.  
“I would love something to eat, I’ve been travelling for hours. Would you mind Adam?” Declan asked with that smile he kept for someone he wanted to convince he had a personality. Ronan hated the way Declan said his first name like he was entitled to it, not like it was a gift. A gift Ronan had been denied less than an hour ago.  
Ronan looked under his eyelashes and scowled when he saw Parrish return Declans fake ass smile. It was fucking radiant and felt like a kick in his stomach. “Fine,” Ronan said and actually did shoulder barge past Declan on his way into his castle.

\- - -

It was him. The man from the river. Adam’s heart pounded and he was sure both the brothers could tell. He seriously debated if he should turn around and walk home. Ronan the first brother was already an overwhelming presence, and now his brother was the man Adam had fallen in love with. He looked upwards as if there might be storm clouds to confirm what a disaster this could mount to with very little effort. He followed both men into the stone castle, the stones were cold on his bare feet, and suddenly he was hyper-aware that everyone had shoes on but him. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what shoes were. When he had lived in the outer-world he’d had a very ratty pair that he’d done his best to extend the life of. However over time, they had worn out, and Adam knew nothing about the trade of cobbling shoes. Cabeswater, that was the name of the forest? Cabewater had protected him from any real harm. He wished he had a pair of shoes though, he felt unequal in this castle, with the Lynch brothers.  
Adam lifted his eyes to glance at Declan’s back. It was after all the most familiar part of him, besides those dark curls. It was a cruel trick of clothing, that he couldn’t draw any similarities between the naked back in the river and this white shirt encased one. His hair was a little longer then Adam remembered from the river, which made sense, time had passed, even though he didn’t know how much. Ronan lived here, but he didn’t seem thrilled to have his brother here. Were they closer before? Had something happened to make Declan stay away from his brothers’ forest home? Or did he stay away because of Adam’s gentle attack in the river?  
“Parrish?”  
Adam stopped short, just before he ran into Declan. He looked up at Ronan who seemed to want a reply, and now Declan watched him too. “Sorry?”  
“Dinner? We’ll have it in an hour, Declan and I have to talk about matters outside the forest.” Ronan repeated gruffly.  
“Okay,” Adam said with a slow nod.  
“I have a drawing-” Ronan paused and looked around, before he hunched forward and said, “You better go to the courtyard garden. Come on I’ll show you where it is.” Ronan said his voice faded as he turned and started to walk away from Adam, and his brother.  
Adam walked after him, turning his head back to look at Declan who was looking after his brother and hadn’t seemed to notice Adam at all. Adam turned back around, that’s what happened when you lived in this specific kind of hierarchical society. Someone like Adam who didn’t even own shoes was not the right fit for someone like Declan Lynch who stood like a prince.  
Adam put his hands behind his back and paid attention to where Ronan was led him. They stepped out into a large courtyard, with a small curated garden. “Someone will come and get you for dinner,” Ronan said and was gone and Adam’s thanks fell to the ground unheeded.  
Adam looked around, the stone made the plants stick out, but not in a way that Adam particularly liked, it was like the stone and the plants were in a fight for attention, for survival. There was no roof above the garden just sky but the walls were unbeatable competition for the sun, that these plants desperately needed. How had Adam never once come across a castle in his time in the forest? How had he not felt these plants? Was Cabeswater larger and more untapped then he even realised? Adam ran his fingers over one of the leaves of a thriving bush, one who preferred low light and was doing well in these conditions, however, they crowded the drooping Orchids and shielded them from what little sunlight they could get in these walls. Adam climbed into the garden, feet in the soil, and he stroked the petals of the orchid as if it were a small child in need of comfort.  
This garden made Adam sad, it held so much misery even more then it’s sun depletion, they were weak and exhausted from trying to fight the energies around them. Something bad had happened in this castle or was happening. Adam didn’t get fear for his own safety, but there was growing indignation at what had been allowed to happen to these plants. He scouted the garden looking for a sunnier spot, coming back and gently lifted the orchids and their pots full of moss out of the garden. He carefully moved them all over to the newly scouted plot, making sure to keep the dirt away from the base of their pots.  
Adam put both the Lynch brothers, and his indignation out of his mind and worked to move plants around and trim down leaves where he could safely do so. He tried the best he could to bring some balance and harmony to the garden, companion planted those that did well in similar soil, along with those that had been planted together a long time ago and missed being near each other. He walked around and bent to check on the plants now they had been rearranged, it wasn’t a perfect job, but it had been a matter of triaging the worst cases and then he had worked back from there.  
“What the fuck did you do now?” Adam turned sharply to see Ronan looking at his garden.  
“I just saved your plants from death. There isn’t enough sunlight here, for them to live properly, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you are going to keep plants here, you need to rotate them. They were so tired.” Adam snapped.  
“It’s my mother's garden,” Ronan said through gritted teeth.  
“Well I would very much like to talk to your mother then,” Adam glowered.  
Ronan’s blue eyes shot to Adam’s face, and Adam realised he’d made a mistake, Ronan’s gaze wasn’t just hurt it was shattered, and Adam immediately wanted to redo the entire conversation, he didn’t expect that level of response to what Adam had put down to lack of care about the plants, this was something else.  
“Unless you’re fucking psychic, that will never fucking happen. She’s dead.”  
Adam’s breath picked up, and he reached out a hand, even though he wasn’t close enough to touch Ronan, he didn’t have any other tool in his emotional tool kit to deal with that statement. “I’m sorry.”  
“Dinner is ready.” With that Ronan swung away from Adam yet again, and Adam followed with a shaky breath.


	4. Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s one night. You are being childish.” Declan said through clenched teeth. “Adam, would you talk some sense into him?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes my brain just doesn't want to use the correct tense, and it's an actual problem. Also, I put comma's where my heart wants them not where my head wants them.

Ronan pointed to a chair as they entered the dining room. He’d imagined something opulent with a giant banquet table, however, it was something much smaller, maybe eight seats all of them close enough to talk to other table guests. Declan sat at the head of the table, or was it the foot? Adam wasn’t sure because Ronan took a seat at the other end with a raised eyebrow at his brother. Adam wanted to apologise to Ronan again, about his mother, he didn’t want to hurt anyone. It weighed him down and made him all the more grateful that he didn’t have much to do with people usually. Adam picked a seat in the middle and sat quietly.  
Adam glanced under his lashes down to where Declan was in the middle of a silent conversation with Ronan, with just their eyebrows. He turned his gaze down to Ronan who’s own eyebrows had rearranged in communication, and it surprised Adam how unguarded Ronan’s blue eyes were, even with his combative attitude. Declan's were cool, guarded, and vacant enough to not give anyone any real idea of what he thought. Ronan’s were open, challenging, aggressive and vibrant, he didn’t care what people could work out from his eyes, he didn’t hide it.  
“Ronan, I’m so-”  
“Don’t worry about it. You didn’t know.” Ronan said turning his eyes on Adam and shrugged. It happened so suddenly Adam wasn’t prepared for those eyes to be turned on him. They were clear, his eyes lining up exactly with his words. Adam nodded silently and attempted a smile that was neither awkward or false.  
Someone brought out plates of food, well, Adam wasn’t exactly sure it was some ’one’. It could possibly pass as someone if you didn’t look too closely, but there was an otherness about it, something that didn’t quite fit the proportions of humans. They also had a tail, a long prehensile one.  
“Thank you,” Adam said anyway and glanced up and trying to offer them a smile, that seemed to slide off their shoulders as if they noticed but hadn’t cared.  
Adam frowned at the cutlery, it had been years since he’d used any. He picked up the fork and moved it slowly back and forth in his hand to get used to it. He looked back to watch Declan, it was clear he was a master of the social arts and he surely wouldn’t have any qualms about how to use a fork without dropping it. Adam slid his hand across the table to pick up the knife slowly and mimicked Declan’s deft movements. Adam quietly adjusted and readjusted his grip until it seemed to match. He looked across his dinner plate which had some roasted vegetables and some form of roast meat on it. He chose what looked like roasted potatoes as his target, and speared them in one fluid movement. Pressing the knife to the tines of the fork and pushing down slowly, the potato falling apart easily. He popped the half a potato into his mouth quickly and avoided clanging his teeth. As he concentrated on his dinner the other men spoke down the table to each other.  
“It’s been a year Ronan. All I’m asking for is one night of your time.”  
“You don’t need me there, you just want me out of here.”  
“When was the last time you saw Gansey?”  
“What fucking business is it of yours?”  
“Do you know how many people go mad if they are left alone for too long? I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how unfortunate that would be, for you, in particular.”  
“If you think I’m not going to go crazy in the city, you don’t fucking know me.”  
“It’s one night. You are being childish.” Declan said through clenched teeth. “Adam, would you talk some sense into him?”  
Adam’s heart tripped at his name on Declan’s lips, he expected it to consume him, but it was more a surprise than a skip of lust. Declan must be desperate if he was asking Adam to side with him. Adam honestly couldn’t think of anything worse than going into a city, for as agonisingly long as an entire night. The stars felt make-believe in the city. Adam looked up at Ronan, who looked guarded and then to Declan who still waited on for his response. Adam sighed, he would have liked to endear himself to Declan, maybe he had to get to really know him to see the man he had been at the river. “I’m not really a good ally in this argument, I would rather be trampled by a herd of deer than spend one whole minute in a city, any city. They make my bones ache, and my head can’t bear the noise, it’s exhausting. That’s probably not what you wanted to hear.” Adam said quietly.  
Declan’s face stiffened up and he looked annoyed. Adam wanted to take his words back, he should have just said it was a fine idea and left it at that. His entire life he had never been what other people wanted. He wanted too much, or he said the wrong thing, with the wrong attitude or tone of voice or facial expression. He was a burden, he was a pain, and a blight on others. He’d accustomed himself to the fact that he would never be able to understand the right way to be. He wished he’d tried harder, to win Declan’s approval or praise. He was out of practice with people, and Declan was the one person he should want to make a good impression on.  
“Ha.” This was from Ronan.  
Adam turned to him, he looked arrogant and pleased. He cast his eyes to Adam for a moment and smiled. Adam’s heart lurched at the smile, it was so odd on the other man's face, it softened down the sharpness but made him feel even more dangerous. He’s satisfied the wrong brother, but he minded a little less than moments ago. Maybe it was guilt from their conversation earlier, that had to be it. Adam set his cutlery down when he’d eaten his fill and leaned back carefully in the high backed chair. Adam would have imagined it impossibly hard and uncomfortable, but something about it was soft and enveloping, and he sealed a sigh of contentment in his mouth before it could escape.  
“We’ll discuss this tomorrow.” Declan threatened after what seemed like a far too long pause in the conversation.  
“Parrish, do you want to stay the night, it’s raining and too dark to make your way back now.”  
Adam blinked and sat up. He turned his attention to the sounds around him, he’d missed it until Ronan had pointed it out, but there was the faint sound of rain, it sounded so muffled in this building and not in the forest. Adam did not want to stay here for the night, he’d already filled his quota of interacting with people. Not just people, Declan, his secret love from the river. He wanted to go and mull this over endlessly, and maybe he wanted to run away from it, from Declan, maybe it was too much.  
He looked up at Ronan and the no he had been going to offer died on his lips. There was something in Ronan’s eyes that made him ache, not pleasantly. Adam had no experience with either of these men, but there was something Adam would have sworn was fear and pleading in Ronan’s eyes. It seemed so out of place for the man who had chopped down the world around them on their first meeting. With his brother at the end of the table, Adam wasn’t sure why he was allowed to see those things in Ronan’s eyes. What was Ronan asking of him with that look, that still hadn’t wavered or become hidden?  
Adam took in a slow breath through his parted lips, hoping it wasn’t noticeable, and he looked down at his long fingers, he bit on his bottom lip and then without any more thought he lifted his eyes to Ronans and nodded once, “Thank you. We really should discuss what we are going to do about our arrangements.” Adam also offered as a veil to the very different arrangement he and Ronan had somehow made in the silence of a look.


	5. Night Horror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Parrish saved us. He’s a hero.” Ronan snorted and started him on another round of hissed chuckles.

Ronan tossed and turned and paced for hours. It was only in the early morning, that he had managed to collapse into sleep. He woke paralysed, he brought something back with him. Please be something not alive. Something without life or the ability to breathe. Ronan’s eyes were pried open at the sound of the click on the stones, and his mind exploded with panic, it wasn’t just the night horror being able to hurt him he had to worry about. Adam and Declan were in the castle too. No matter how much his mind thrashed his body stayed paralysed.  
Ronan’s heart started to beat out of his chest when he heard footsteps run down his hallway. ‘Please be Declan. Please be Declan.’ His older brother knew what happened in Ronan’s dreams and he’d be prepared to face it. Ronan didn’t want to think about what would happen if it wasn’t Declan. The footsteps came to a stop in front of his door, and he already had a dreadful feeling it was not his brother. The door pushed open without a knock, which temporarily filled him with hope, which was shattered when Adam was silhouetted in the doorway, the torch from the hallway, making his burnished face even brighter and deeper. Ronan managed to move his pinky, he was coming out of paralysis, he tried to move his jaw to shout at Adam, but it wasn’t there yet. Ronan’s brain started to thrash in his still body in an attempt to break free.  
Adam advanced into the room towards the night horror, and Ronan tried to scream when the night horror noticed Adam as well. Adam didn’t stop, he moved forward until he was in reach of the night horror and tilted his head to look at it. Ronan went still as stone, in his body and mind when he watched the night horror mimic Adam, it turned its upper head area on the side. Ronan’s whole right arm was freed from paralysis now, the rest of his body started to follow with a rush. Adam reached a hand out to the night horror and Ronan's shout lurched from him as his vocal cords freed up, “Don’t.”  
Adam looked at Ronan for the first time since he’d entered his room and information seemed to filter behind his eyes as his brain moved faster than Ronan could comprehend, instantly Adam’s eyes went white and vines shot through the window and the balcony, they attached to both Ronan and the night horror, and pinned them both set of their arms, or whatever the night horrors appendages could be considered, to their sides. “It’s dangerous,” Ronan said and thrashed again in the vines, his heartbeat picked up, he had been frozen not three seconds ago and now the vines trapped him instead.  
Adam turned back to consider the dream thing, he reached up to touch the tip of his fingers to it’s lower face area if you could call it a face. Adam furrowed his brows and turned to Ronan, he looked for every part, with white eyes that didn’t seem to have a sight in them, like he didn’t believe Ronan.  
“They will try to kill you. Kill me. They do every time.” Ronan’s snapped statement broke at the end. He wanted Adam to believe him. He wanted Adam to know that he would never lie to him. He wanted Adam to step back from the night horror, out of reach. “Get away.” Ronan barked gruffly.  
Adam still frowned at him with his white eyes, but he put some distance between himself and the night horror and Ronan sagged into the vines. The vines lifted the night horror and again turned it on its side, and the night horror didn’t react. This was like the other time. Ronan looked at Adam, “Are you doing that?”  
Adam nodded, and turned the night horror the other way, rocking it gently like it was some sort of pet. “How are you doing that?” Ronan asked hoarsely.  
Ronan looked up when he heard footsteps travel towards his room, and a moment later Declan burst through the open door with a sword, as he charged for the night horror. Adam startled and withdrew the night horror from the spot Declan had aimed for. Adam’s vine moved fast after that and pulled the night horror entirely out of the room. Adam reached the vines out to curl around Declan’s body and he squeezed both men tight, as they lost sight of the night horror. “What are you doing?” Adam demanded of Declan in outrage.  
Ronan paused to look at this scene, everyone but the night horror he’d dreamed up in his room. All of them prisoners of Adam who seemed outraged that Declan would try and save their lives. Admittedly not the time for humour, but the fact that white knight Declan was getting a serve for doing what was he would think was ‘the right thing’, especially from Adam made Ronan snicker, which turned into a light laugh when Declan shot daggers at him.   
“What is going on?” Declan questioned through clenched teeth.  
“Parrish saved us. He’s a hero.” Ronan snorted and started him on another round of hissed chuckles.  
“How?” Declan asked his brother.  
“I’m still here.” Adam snapped.  
“I apologise,” Declan said immediately.  
Ronan watched with humour as Declan checked himself to see if that was the right response to this situation in his little mental lexicon of socially appropriate behaviours.   
“Would you mind explaining what’s going on?” Declan tried again, as he offered a pull at the corners of his lips which was supposed to pass for a smile.  
Adam looked between Ronan and his brother before he closed his eyes and slowly the vines receded from both of them, and back out the windows and balcony. When Adam opened his eyes again they were blue, more vivid and vibrant they Ronan had yet to see them, maybe it was an aftereffect of whatever Adam had just done, but it twisted something in Ronan’s gut, that threatened to burn him alive.  
“What was that?” This was from Adam, and Ronan knew exactly what he was talking about. He sighed and looked at Declan, rubbing the back of his neck slowly.  
“I dreamed it and then I pulled it out of my dreams. I can do that. I have done that a few times. Actually, that’s how Cabewater exists. I dream things into this world.” Ronan added as if that would better display his point.  
“What were you doing?” Declan asked. He was good at this, the give and take of information a secret for a secret. Ronan didn’t really care about the exchange, they were beyond that now. Adam had gone face to face with his night horror and had survived. Not just that, he didn’t have a single scratch on him. The night horrors attacked anything and anyone without a thought. Ronan had never really thought they had the capacity to make decisions, that they were just creatures built to destroy everything in his dreams and in reality. They had attacked Declan, and always him, they had turned on Gansey when he stayed here, they had cornered his mother when she had visited. They didn’t seem to care who it was.  
“I…” Adam looked to Ronan as if he needed help. He chewed on his index fingernail and tried to find the right description, “I don’t know exactly what I am, but, from what I can gather, I might be a magician.” Adam said with uncertainty.  
“How can you not be sure?” Declan asked.  
“Because I was never able to do any of this, until I came here, to Cabeswater. Your dream forest.” Adam said it softly looking at Ronan as if he was trying to work out what the connection was, just as Ronan was.   
“Your forest gives people magic powers?” Declan asked in exasperation at Ronan, like it was his fault. Did it look like he knew what the fuck he was doing?  
“Fuck off,” Ronan said after a solid five seconds consideration.  
“Ronan!”  
He sighed, he wasn’t sure what exactly Declan wanted from him. He dreamed these things, but it wasn’t like he could control them once they were here, the night horrors should be example enough of that. So IF Cabeswater was doing something, it wasn’t because he allowed it. He couldn’t make the dream forest do this. Cabeswater was a living thing, just like Chainsaw. It did what it wanted. “I didn’t even know he was here until yesterday. It’s not like I was HIDING it. I don’t know what’s going on.” Ronan snapped at his brother.  
Declan rubbed his temples and looked like he’d met a problem he didn’t have a ready response for. Dream forests and magicians will do that to a person, even his brother. “I have to ride back today, so I am going to get a few more hours of sleep, and then maybe, with a little time under our belts, we’ll have more to say on this topic at breakfast.” It wasn’t an invitation, it was a sentence. They were going to talk about this at breakfast, and attendance was not optional.  
“Fine.” Ronan snapped.  
“Okay.” Adam supplied and something about his tone of voice sounded pinched. Ronan wondered if Declan irritated Adam as much as he did Ronan.  
Declan turned and walked out, Adam watched him go, Ronan saw how Adam’s face softened and his eyes linger. Ronan wanted to punch something, he wanted to punch Declan.  
“I’ll see you at breakfast.” Ronan snapped.  
Adam turned to look at him regard him more like an oddity, something unexplained, that needed to be explored. It made Ronan’s skin itch, he looked back at Adam, his gaze was a challenge.  
“What is that?” Adam asked and pointed to Ronan’s back.  
“I dreamt it the first night I slept after my parents' death, and now I can’t get rid of it,” Ronan said when he realised he had pointed to the ink markings on his back. “Declan hates it, I fucking love it.” He wished he hadn’t made it sound like he loved it just because Declan hated it, even though there was truth to that. It was more a mark for the change that had started in Ronan on that day, everything felt changed and marred and he felt like it was all over him, that there was no part of him that was the same as he had been a year ago. The markings made him feel authentic. It was like he was wearing his wounded heart on his back.


	6. Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He hadn’t touched another human being in years, he’d always craved touch that wasn’t painful, touch that was warm and registered him as a living and breathing thing, not as an outlet for frustration.

Adam left Ronan’s sleeping quarters but he didn’t want to go back to his room. He hadn’t really been asleep, he didn’t like the way the bed felt, it was all cold and artificial. He made his way down to the courtyard garden, which instantly felt warmer and more alive then it had the night before. The plants greeted him with gratitude and Adam felt the weight start to slide easily off his shoulders. The sun would be up soon, and he looked forward to being with the plants for it. His own skin felt smothered and chilled without the sun on him all it’s waking hours, as it was at his home.  
He became more and more confused about what was going on in this castle. What Ronan’s dreams meant for the forest and for him. Did Ronan dream him and just not know it? Is that why the creature didn’t hurt him but lashed out at everyone else including its creator? Adam had all these memories, painful things, with edges and scars, in his mind. Could that have all been made up in Ronan’s dreams? The thing in Ronan’s room was a dream, Adam had felt no fear from it. He’d felt fear from Ronan in lashings, but the thing, he’d felt a kinship to. He didn’t know what it was, or why the Lynch brothers feared it, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t the first time he’d felt one of them. A painful feeling of being incomplete and monstrous flashed through him for the first time since he’d entered the forest.  
The feeling he’d felt when he’d been in bed, had been a rush and a jolt from the forest, demanding action, he was not used to that feeling. Cabeswater made no demands of him, only asking his attention when he was free to offer it. He’d gotten up to follow the pull immediately, with a panic of thoughts crushing his mind, he hadn’t known what he would find until he’d entered Ronan’s bedroom. The rest felt like a daze. Like he was more forest than man. Like he was a tool for the forest, or that the forest was a tool for him, he couldn’t work it out. Who had control? Who was making the decisions? Until this morning he had never really had a concern about it, now he wanted to know. Was it the forest that had protected the Lynch brothers and the creature? Or was it him? Who had brought him to that room, the forest, Ronan, the dream creature or himself? After all this time it was only now occurring to Adam to worry about who he had become and how he had come to find Cabeswater despite the brutality of his past.  
The orchid he had relocated last night leaned in to caress his cheek in comfort, and Adam closed his eyes and leaned into it. Did it really matter who was in charge? Would he change the way things were? Probably not. He would still look after the forest, that was absolutely his choice. He knew that no-one was making that decision for him. The forest had looked after and protected him at the beginning, that wasn’t a choice Adam had made, the forest had. Cabeswater loved him, and Adam loved Cabeswater. Whatever else was happening in this castle, and with his abilities, he could still feel the forest in his veins, and it was a comfort, not a control.  
He heard a shuffle and his eyes jumped open on Ronan, he held a bucket which sloshed water on the stone floor, and he stared at Adam. “I didn’t know you were here.” He said slowly. “I thought the plants could use water, you said…” Ronan shrugged.  
“It rained last night, they are content,” Adam said quietly looking up into the lightening blue sky above them.  
“How do you know that?” Ronan surprised Adam with the question.  
Adam looked at Ronan, his blue eyes sharp and edged with something that was probably reflections of the rising sun but if the magic and the horror of the early morning where indicators of impossibility, they could have been gold. Adam considered the question and put a hand to his heart, he sat up a little and tilted his head to look at Ronan, “I don’t know, it just fills me. They talk to me before I even know the questions I know the answers. I don’t know how to describe it, because it’s not-” Adam didn’t know the word for it.  
“Sane?” Ronan supplied.  
Adam snorted at that and offered Ronan an exasperated look. “Yes, I suppose. It doesn’t make sense, I know it doesn’t make sense, but in me, it’s as if the forest is singing as if my veins are its veins as if it exists separately to me with its own agenda but it fills me and its agenda is my agenda… it doesn’t make sense.” Adam acknowledged.  
“How do you do the vine thing?” Ronan asked as he sat opposite Adam, close enough to warm the air around them with his presence.  
Adam laughed shakily and shook his head, “It’s just a part of me. Like fingers, and limbs, when my body isn’t enough they just become an extension of me, all the plants do. I don’t know why it’s just something that happened one day.” The day at the river. “I think I just become so focused on something, that my body was no longer enough, I needed more.” Adam shrugged flushing at the memory. “But-” Adam wasn’t sure that he needed to continue that sentence, he didn’t need to confide in Ronan, and yet he felt like he could. After the look they had shared at the end of dinner, he felt like Ronan was open to him.  
“But?” Ronan prompted.  
Adam frowned at him for a moment, “It never occurred to me to be frustrated by it until I was here. Until you and your brother started asking questions, that I probably should have asked a long time ago.” Adam said quietly.  
Ronan nodded once he seemed to understand but he didn’t say anything, which gave Adam a chance to breathe.  
After the silence stretched, almost becoming uncomfortable, Ronan spoke. “My parents died. My father first, and my mother straight after.” Ronan seemed to be struggling with something as if he wanted to say more but decided to go in a different direction. “I found my father's body at our home, I still remember the smell, the exact shade of the sky, the feel of the rocks against my shins as I reached him, but I can’t seem to remember what it looked like when he smiled, or the sound of his voice when he was drunk and singing.” Ronan shuddered as if the confession weighed on him and shook his concept of himself.  
“I was so invested in my misery. I came away to Cabeswater, to live in my misery and surrender to it, whatever happened after didn’t matter. I wanted to be alone, my friends and family, they all tried to tear me away from my job, which was to be miserable. They all wanted me to fix it, to stop, and I didn’t know how. I mean I still don’t know how. What can you feed a soul that’s intent on eating itself whole?  
But now, I wonder if there were things out there, which I missed because I was only focused on the pain. Things that… would have helped. Like the way, you are connected to Cabeswater. Maybe a connection like that would have helped me.” Ronan was staring Adam in the eye, and Adam felt a warmth flood his torso, it roared up through his neck and to his ears.  
He felt like Ronan was trying to talk to him with his eyes like words were hard for him to form properly, but that the message was too important to discard and suddenly Adam could understand Ronans struggles to use his voice. He felt like his words had been tossed into a box and then all poured out onto the ground and that he couldn’t remember the order they were in to start with.  
Adam reached out to take Ronans’ hand and flicked his eyes up to his, “I’m sorry about your parents.” Adam felt like he was pushing through molasses to find those words, lacking any finesse or any true authenticity. He wanted to say so much more. He wanted to express how grateful he was that Ronan had shared that with him. His heart broke that Ronan had lost parents he loved, who must have loved him. He wanted to say he could understand the misery. He wanted to offer to help save Ronan’s soul. The feeling of Cabeswater in his veins was overwhelming him and he couldn’t think straight anymore, his veins were screaming with familiar energy. He managed to cover Ronan’s hand with his own, and hoped that spoke better than he could right then.  
“Thanks,” Ronan whispered.  
They stayed there, Ronan’s hand sandwiched between both of Adam’s and what Adam had initially thought was simply a comforting gesture for a kind, magical stranger but it seemed to blur around the edges and Adam suddenly didn’t know what it was anymore. Why had he reached out to touch him? What would he think if he wasn’t deafened by Cabeswaters energy? Ronan’s skin started to burn against his, and Adam was suddenly painfully aware of every second of every breath Ronan was taking. Suddenly the urge to throw Ronan’s hand away from him and pull it closer swam in Adam’s brain and he stopped breathing to consider the options as if the lack of oxygen would make the decision easier.  
Adam’s face was starting to get warm with the urge to breath, and Adam snapped out of it, Cabeswater went instantly silent, he exhaled and slid his hands away from Ronan’s, that was the only choice for him to make. That was definitely the right choice. He hadn’t touched another human being in years, he’d always craved touch that wasn’t painful, touch that was warm and registered him as a living and breathing thing, not as an outlet for frustration. His past started to swarm into his brain after years of reprieve, and his father was before his eyes again. He was trying to suck in his breath, trying to expel the image.  
“Parrish.” Adam’s teeth rattled and his body was shaken. He was back in the courtyard garden he was with Ronan, although he was suddenly a lot closer, his hands on Adam’s shoulders had been what had shaken him and pulled him roughly back into the present. Adam stuttered for a second over his breath and was grateful for the physical grounding. Adam hissed between his teeth like a release value and closed his eyes, he pulled his back straighter and opened them again to look at Ronan,  
“I’m sorry. That’s never happened before. I mean not like that.” Adam said.  
“What happened?” Ronan asked his eyes searched for signs of danger or hurt, Adam could feel his gaze all over his face, the concern made Adam uncomfortable.  
“I just got stuck in the past for a second. Before the forest. Before.” Adam said.  
Ronan took that answer and Adam could see him try to understand it before he digested it. After a few seconds, he simply nodded, and removed his hands and sat back in his original spot. “The waking nightmares are the worst,” Ronan said after a moment.  
“Mmhmm,” Adam said quietly watching his face.


	7. Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I saw you at the river once. A while ago.” The words flew out of Adam’s mouth but they were softer then Adam would have expected them to be, as they felt like they would explode from him.  
> “Me?” Declan asked and comically lifted one of his long fingers to point at himself as if they needed to clarify who he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three more chapters after this.
> 
> Also, I am aware that this portrayal of Cabeswater is canon divergent, Cabeswater is a living separate entity in canon, but here it's more tied to a person, but I'm just all about the symbolism.

Adam sat in the same spot as the night before, the brothers in their same spots and they were all silent. Breakfast was yet to be served. Adam and Ronan had splotches of dirt on them from the work they had eventually done in the courtyard, and Declan sat apart, dressed like he was about to go on a hunt, with riding pants, and long-sleeved white shirt, and a sturdy helmet that he’d removed to sit at the table, with his curls tousled and just messy enough that Adam bit his bottom lip to keep himself quiet.  
“This morning,” Declan said, as he tried to work out how to finish that thought.  
“My dream horror.” Ronan offered.  
“My connection to Cabewater,” Adam added.  
“What happened to the dream horror, after you dragged it out of the castle?” Declan asked and turned his gaze straight on Adam, no chance for Adam to look away or deflect.  
“I released it into the forest. With the other one.” Adam said.  
“The other one?” Declan asked and looked at his brother. “This happened before.”  
“Uh, so this has happened once before,” Ronan said dryly.  
Declan looked like he had to work to keep his composure even. He had often looked like that in the short time Adam had known him. He wasn’t sure if it was a character trait or his brothers' company just brought out that specific side of him.   
Declan turned back to look at Adam, “So there are two night horrors out there? They need to be dealt with, they are dangerous.” Declan said.  
“Dangerous how?” Adam asked he’d never felt any danger from either of the creatures.  
“They will kill anything they come across. They’d tried before. Ronan dreams them, and they try to kill him.” Adam felt like Declan had left out a whole lot more of the story for brevity, he didn’t like it. “We’ll hunt them down before I leave.”  
“It didn’t hurt me last night. I mean before the vines.” Adam said doubtfully and edge in his tone, Declan seemed a little too eager to kill things, Adam disliked people who approached any living thing with an eye to maim or kill.  
Declan looked back at Ronan, Adam followed his gaze to watch something tumble across Ronan’s eyes before he gave a short nod. “He’s right.”  
Declan's eyes widened at that, and he turned to look at Adam and brought both of his hands to clasp together in front of his face, obviously trying to make sense of what he had heard.  
“Maybe they aren’t as dangerous as you think? When we come across things that we are unfamiliar with-” Adam stopped when Declan nodded at this younger brother. Ronan shook his head and his eyes darkened as he pulled his arms to his chest. After a moment he snorted and shook his head at Declan in stubborn refusal. Adam turned back to Declan to see him point across the table at Ronan and then point at Adam.   
Ronan snorted like a horse, and slammed the back of his arm down on the table, and removed the leather cuff on his left wrist and revealed a painful, jagged looking scar. Adam leaned forward to look it over. He had seen plenty of scars, he had a very specific understanding of just how deep a wound had to be, to have that kind of scar tissue on top of the skin. Adam looked up at Ronan’s face but it was turned away from him.  
“He almost died. It was one of his night terrors. It’s not the only attack, but it was by far the worst. We had the priest on hand for three weeks, as we waited to see if he would survive.” Adam turned away from Ronan to look at Declan slowly. His chest panged when he saw something in Declan’s eyes, that he couldn’t filter out. It was tiny, just a spark, but it was the most real thing he’d seen in the other man's eyes. That was the truth. The painful truth. Declan loved his brother, and that was something Adam was quickly beginning to understand as well.  
Adam lowered his head and considered what he’d been told, and what he’d seen, he tried to come to a place where he could have the night horrors already in Cabewater killed. A feeling rushed through him and Adam smiled at the familiar feel of the forest in him. “We’ll make a space for them in the forest. Trap them in there, but give them room to move, and live. We’ll make sure it’s sealed and they can’t get out and any others that you dream into existence we’ll do the same.” Adam said.  
“How would you do that?” Declan asked.  
“The same way we did it for me.” Adam offered.  
Declan made a noise and Adam turned to look at him, “Let me rephrase that. How do you do what you do? You said you are a magician what does that mean?” Declan asked.  
Adam sighed, that thought had plagued him all morning as well. “I don’t really know what a magician is. There was a wizard who lived in my town. He would often rant about how magicians were charlatans and con men. Tricking people with sleight of hand and other cons. But he did say, that if a real magician was to exist, they would have to be intuitive. Wizardry is about knowledge, and the more you know the better you become. He’d never met a real magician but he said, they would have to have an intuitive understanding of what the wizards had a rational understanding of. I don’t have any of the knowledge of a wizard, but we’ve all seen what I can do. So, that’s what I’m guessing is happening. Somehow, intuitively I’ve stumbled on this understanding. I can just do it.” Adam finished. “Whatever it is. Maybe it was a gift from Cabeswater, I can’t be sure, I’ve never been anywhere else since I found I could do this.”  
Adam lifted his eyes to meet Declans, only they were on his brother at the other end of the table. Adam turned his eyes on Ronan who was looking down the table at Declan, they were having another one of those silent conversations.   
“What do you intend to do now that you know about the castle and Ronan?” Declan asked still looking at his brother, they were still in the middle of their conversation.  
“I thought I could just go about things like I had before and now assist with the night horrors. I was happy where I was, and if Ronan doesn’t mind, I could stay there and continue my work.” Adam said.  
“In all the time you were in the forest you never once ran into any human before? How is that possible? Even with your powers, you couldn’t hide this entire castle could you?” Declan asked before he turned to look at Adam with a frown of concentration, “How big is Cabeswater if you can both be completely unaware of each other? There is a lot to be concerned about.”  
Adam’s heart began to beat faster and he looked down at the table and blinked rapidly. He could lie, It wouldn't be hard to lie about when he had seen Declan in the river. Cabeswater rushed into his ears and started to paddle at his vocal cords as if trying to push the confession out of him. Declan would be gone by the end of the day, and if Adam said it carefully enough, it wouldn’t have to mean anything. Maybe he could meet in the middle between a statement and a confession. Cabeswater had flooded his body now, too much for his human form to handle, he started to feel his skin crawl with the energy and he couldn’t keep it in. “I saw you at the river once. A while ago.” The words flew out of Adam’s mouth but they were softer then Adam would have expected them to be, as they felt like they would explode from him.  
“Me?” Declan asked and comically lifted one of his long fingers to point at himself as if they needed to clarify who he was.  
Adam nodded, his tongue tingled and his ears flushed with warmth. “Yes. You.”   
“I’ve never been to a river here. I hardly care to leave the castle when I’m here. It wasn’t me.”  
“Then it was someone who looked exactly like you,” Adam grumbled and watched as Declan’s eyes flew across the table to land with accusation on Ronan. Adam’s eyes followed and he took in Ronan’s face, the slightly different shades of blue eyes, the sharp jaw that on Declan was tempered with a smile. The same high cheekbones. Adam’s eyes lifted to the shaved dark stubble on Ronan’s head, and something clicked into place. Ronan would be the far more likely culprit. He lived here, he’d know of the river more than Declan would. They had similar body types. “He didn’t have markings on his back,” Adam said and shook his head a little. It wasn’t _Ronan_. He couldn’t look away from Ronan all the same.  
“They have only been there for a year,” Ronan said with a shrug, looking at Adam and then two-point of red started to flood his cheeks and he slammed his fist on the table, it wasn’t a threat. “The roots in the river, was that you?” Ronan said as if something had finally clicked into place.  
Adam looked at Ronan as he called the scene back, the scene where the reeds and the roots had started to climb Ronan’s body. His naked body. Adam flushed, and Cabeswaters activity inside of him went still and silent. He stared at Ronan, and Ronan stared at him. “I didn’t mean too,” Adam said as if that excused him spying on Ronan naked, and groping at him with plant life.  
“So you did know that someone else was in the forest?” Declan asked.   
Adam turned to see the other mans’ face had gentled just slightly, and there was the start of a smile that might have been genuine on his face, and Adam leapt at the reprieve from being mesmerized by Ronan and watched Declan instead.  
“I honestly didn’t know he lived here, or that it was his forest, I thought it was maybe just a visitor.” He’d thought a whole lot of other things about it, in the time that followed, more than he wanted to share at a table where that man sat and stared at the back of his head.  
“Well now that you both know about the other, you might be best to at least meet regularly to discuss the status of the forest.” Declan offered, and of course, he was right, he was a smart and efficient, pleasant man. Suddenly Adam felt relief, that his idea of Declan and his fantasy of Declan didn’t have to match, Declan was allowed to be just as boring as he was.   
Adam nodded at that, “That sounds fair. If that’s alright with you?” Adam asked Ronan but he didn’t bring his eyes all the way back to Ronan, he settled his gaze somewhere over his right shoulder, close enough to make it look like he could see his face.  
“Whatever.” Ronan shifted in his seat and Adam had to move his eyes further away as Ronan’s body started to fill the right side of his chair. Adam forced his eyes into the middle of the table again and nodded. That suited him, at least in the sense that it got him away from this castle and away from Ronan, and away from the pounding vibrations in his chest that Cabeswater had no ownership in.   
“Well, I suppose that’s the most basic of accords we can make at this point. You must promise me you’ll be vigilant with the night horrors?” Declan said to Adam.  
Adam nodded, “Of course, Cabeswater will alert me. You can also call out for me if something happens and Cabeswater will pass it on to me.” Again Adam threw the word over his shoulder not looking at Ronan.  
“Fine.” This was from Ronan as he stood up without another word and left the table. They still hadn’t had breakfast, but Adam supposed their business was complete here, and he could go home, and get his own food. Be alone with his own thoughts again, try and regain balance, see if he could reinstate the peace he’d had twenty-four hours before. Before he’d met Ronan Lynch.


	8. Longing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He had always thought of Cabeswater as an escape from humans and from emotional and physical pain, he’d never thought of it as one individual. He’d never thought of where Cabeswater came from, or how it could do what it did, how it could bestow him with the powers to do what he could. Now all he could think about, all he saw was Ronan in every creature that hid in the underbrush, to every looming tall tree, everything felt like Ronan and Adam had for a while thought that would be enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if you were wondering what prompted this fic. This specific song, that was recommended to me by my beta reader and cruel muse Kate. It's this specific version cause my Korean is limited to number 1 to 10 from my youthful Tae Kwon Do training.
> 
> The Truth Untold - BTS  
> English Version - Ysabelle
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugYWg9d_dTE
> 
> The more you know.

Adam could breathe again in the forest, back in his nature-filled home. He didn’t feel the claustrophobia of the castle here. Everything simplified and Declan Lynch slipped easily from his mind in days, Ronan Lynch, stubbornly haunted that back of his mind, but Adam was content for that level of companionship, and absolutely nothing more. He wasn’t even sure what would have happened if things were different If he had known it had been Ronan all along. Would they have had the conversation they had before breakfast the morning he left? Or would it have been thwarted by Adam’s brain? Adam was smart enough to know he had an extraordinary brain, he could find a solution to just about anything. Adam was intelligent and diligent and those two things conspired to run the problem of Ronan Lynch into the ground in his mind, unable to let it go, because what was he if not a problem solver? Smart enough to come up with a solution to anything?  
Adam went to see the night horrors three times since he had visited the castle. Every time they were tame and placid, like wild animals who were used to human contact. He found it difficult to understand how they could cause so much fear and pain to Ronan and those around him. He’d decided to give them names, both were hideously individual looking so it wasn’t hard to tell them apart.  
Kalem was the oldest, Adam had to search the forest to find him and bring him to this place, Anakoni was the one he’d met already and he seemed content to be in this place, he never really knew of anything outside of Ronan’s dreams, the castle bedroom and here. It was strange to think that they were both a part of Ronan. In fact, they were all Ronan, that’s where they had been created, in Ronan’s dreams. Adam found it comforting being in this space watching them. They didn’t act anything like any other creature Adam knew of, but there was something about them that reminded him of Ronan.  
Now that he knew this entire forest, everything he knew to be home, was actually from within Ronan, Adam’s crush had deepened. Ronan was not anymore just a beautiful man in the forest. He was the creator of extraordinary things. The creator of worlds, he was the closest to a god that Adam was ever likely to meet. Everything Adam had needed to heal, everything he had needed to come to the peace he had gotten in this forest. Cabeswater had healed him, and yet what was Cabeswater if not a symptom of Ronan himself? Now every time food was ready for him without asking he thought about Ronan in his castle. Every time Cabeswater asked his help, he thought of Ronan in the courtyard garden. Every time the overwhelming sensation of what to do with Ronan filled him, the feel of Ronan’s hand between his, strong and yet patient and gentle raced through his body.  
He had always thought of Cabeswater as an escape from humans and from emotional and physical pain, he’d never thought of it as one individual. He’d never thought of where Cabeswater came from, or how it could do what it did, how it could bestow him with the powers to do what he could. Now all he could think about, all he saw was Ronan in every creature that hid in the underbrush, to every looming tall tree, everything felt like Ronan and Adam had for a while thought that would be enough. He could be close to Ronan just like this, it was a connection he had always had with Ronan and that it was all he had ever wanted. Until he’d met the man in person, and then even the forest that he loved and loved him wasn’t a complete enough substitute. Maybe he should visit the castle, to make sure that no more night horrors had arrived. To talk about the forest and allow himself a moment of time with Ronan to tide him over again, to chew on and digest slowly in his head when he was all alone again.

\- - -

Ronan was stifled in this castle. There was nothing he could do, he needed to run, he wanted to run until he had no more oxygen left in his body. He spent far too much time in the tiny courtyard garden and he understood everything that Adam had been trying to tell him that night he was here. It was too small the light wasn’t nearly good enough, even while the plants were thriving in their new locations, Ronan didn’t feel like it as enough. He’d been building a garden in a clearing close to the castle. The days of manual labour, breaking rocks, and grinding them down were adequate ways to waste his waking hours, of which he had many more than most. He worked on the garden tirelessly.  
His mind kept sliding back to Adam, and what Adam would want in a garden. Ronan didn’t know, so he would spend hours lying on the green earth in the garden space trying to communicate with Cabeswater. Sometimes he thought he got wisps of idea’s, and for a moment he’d wonder if they were from Cabeswater if they were from Adam if they could communicate that way? It didn’t take long for him to push those thoughts out of his mind, he’d never been able to communicate with Cabeswater, he hadn’t even known Adam was there and besides that, he wasn’t the one Adam wanted to communicate with.  
At breakfast the morning after his night horrors appeared, Adam and Declan had spent all their time looking at each other. Adam’s looks were soft and so full of longing. Ronan wasn’t so jealous as to believe Declan's looks were anything but fixed social politeness, but the very fact that Declan couldn’t see the way Adam looked at him, made Ronan furious. They’d fought, verbally not psychically, before Declan had left. Ronan still wasn’t over the dark, bitter feeling that all Adam had wanted was Declan's attention. The mix of feelings seemed to take up his entire body. Declan didn’t even want what Adam had to offer, he would be careless with it even if he had it, and Ronan would bleed to the bare bones for one look Declan had received over that night and morning.  
Ronan didn’t sleep well, he never really had slept well, but it was worse knowing that he might never get to see Adam again, and worse still to think that he might get to see him often but he’d always be disappointed that he wasn’t his brother. Something he could never be, and he had a burning ache to give Adam whatever he wanted. Everything he wanted, things he didn’t even know he wanted. But he wouldn’t become Declan.  
The sun was burning down on his fair skin and Ronan knew he was going to have to go inside, to beat the heat. But he didn’t want to be inside, he didn’t want to be in that cold grey stone prison. Adam had only been there for a few hours, but now everything was a stark reminder of what his home was with Adam in it and without Adam in it. It was just a moment, it was something Ronan shouldn’t remember, but he couldn’t forget and he couldn’t make himself want to forget Adam. His teeth hurt as he clenched them in an effort to pull himself out of his longing. He rested the garden shovel against the stone wall of the garden and wiped the sweat from his brow. Maybe he should seek Adam out, ask him about the best plans for the garden. Add an image of Adam here. The one tool he currently had to block the thought of Adam out of his mind with was this project. No matter what he did, Adam had moved into his mind and wouldn’t leave, at least if Adam had some input into the garden, he might be able to leave the image of Adam in the garden at the end of the day and not have to house and feed the longing Adam created.


	9. Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam looked over the outside garden and sat on the rock wall, “Did you dream these rocks?” Adam asked.  
> “Fuck,” Ronan said and shook his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the Epilogue remains after this. It was an addition I made late in the process just to make sure there was a nice amount of closure.

Adam made his way to the river, he thought he would head to the castle, and see Ronan but Cabeswater was pushing him back to the river. Adam’s heart leapt with the memory he had seeded there over a year ago. He came through the tree’s to stand on the edge of the riverbank and looked at Ronan who was on the other side of the river. He was bent over the water, his hair was damp and Adam wondered if he had just been for a swim or if he intended to go for one. He hadn’t been noticed, he could wait and see. The idea seemed seedy now, he didn’t want to spy on Ronan he wanted to know him. Adam forced his feet forward until he came to stand on the edge of the river. “Ronan.” He said quietly.  
Ronan’s eyes darted up and he stood slowly as he looked across the water at Adam, “hey.”  
“Hey,” Adam responded and offered Ronan half a smile, to test his reaction, to see what his mood might be that day, maybe he just wanted to be left alone.  
Ronan’s eyes softened, and while he didn’t answer with a smile of his own, Adam felt like Ronan was again trying to speak to him silently with a look.  
“I was going to come and see you,” Adam said.  
“Yeah?” Ronan asked back and lifted an eyebrow.  
“I wanted to know if there had been any more night horrors. I haven’t felt anything.” Adam said.  
“No, nothing since you and Declan were there.” Ronan stumbled over the thought behind that word and said, “Declan went home the same day you did, he hasn’t been back.”   
Adam nodded at that but wasn’t really sure if it was any of his business. “I did assume that was his plans from the conversation we had that morning.”  
Ronan nodded at that and looked down at the water and then ran a hand over his pink neck.  
“You’ve been out in the sun recently?” Adam asked and gestured to his warm pink skin because even though it was drivel he liked it when Ronan spoke when Ronan looked at him.  
“Yeah.” Ronan seemed to weigh something up in his mind before he added, “I’m building a garden outside. You were right the plants don’t get enough light. I was going to see if you knew what they would need if I moved them outside.” Ronan said finally.  
“That’s good.” It was great, contentment buzzed in his veins at the idea, “If you need some help I’m more than happy to come by. Take a look.” Adam offered.  
Ronan nodded not looking at him directly. “Yeah, if you wanna you can come by whenever.”  
“What about now?”  
“Uh.” Adam could tell that wasn’t what Ronan had expected to hear, “Yeah. Uh okay.” 

\- - -

Adam looked over the outside garden and sat on the rock wall, “Did you dream these rocks?” Adam asked.  
“Fuck,” Ronan said and shook his head.  
Adam laughed in disbelief, “You ground down all of these rocks by hand? Are you sure you are sane?” Adam teased.  
“The loneliness hasn’t sent me crazy yet, Declan will just have to keep waiting.”  
Adam stood up and walked around the area Ronan had plotted with the stone wall, pausing to feel into the depth of the soil, it was like most of Cabeswater a unique and dreamlike thing, with its own variations without the rules of the outside world. “Cabeswater loves it here.” Adam told Ronan as he started to move again, “It is riding my veins and making me feel giddy.” He was pretty certain it was the forest and not Ronan’s presence, but the presence of both were starting to feel interchangeable. “You could grow vegetables here. On top of this wall, you could have pots of herbs. The orchid should stay inside, but the shrubs could line the outside wall. With tree’s ten paces further out from them. Here you could put all sorts of flowers, roses right near where you are.” Adam pointed.  
“Roses were my mother's favourite,” Ronan said quietly.  
“A whole row of roses. Yellow, and pink and white. Maybe you could dream up some other ones.” Adam offered he was thinking of a royal purple and a midnight blue.   
Ronan’s face lit up at that thought but still, he didn’t smile, but Adam felt powerful in a different way then the borrowed energy of Cabeswater to have produced that mood.  
“Ronan?” Adam asked quietly.  
He turned his eyes on Adam with an unexpected softness still in them.  
Adam lost his nerve and swallowed hard, but he held his eyes, trying to carry on one of those silent conversations that Ronan was so fond of. He wasn’t doing it right because Ronan started to frown in confusion. Adam had to use his words, he trusted them, but he didn’t trust his courage to carry him through them. Adam moved forward, closer to Ronan and gestured to space where Ronan had already said a gate would go eventually. “You could put a metal archway here, and I could have vines twine into the metalwork,” Adam said, which wasn’t what he needed to say, but he was hoping Ronan would pick up on what was unspoken.  
“Yeah. That would be good.” Ronan said softly still watching Adam.  
Adam’s heart was beating fast as he looked into Ronan’s eyes, “I’m glad it was you I saw in the river.”  
“Are you saying you wanted to see me naked Parrish?” Ronan teased his eyes shuttering.  
Adam huffed and turned his eyes away, but it was more to stop himself hyperventilating then it was any offence. “Not unless you know about it next time.” Adam dared.  
Ronan took a step back and Adam felt like he’d been pushed underwater. He was being rejected. Oh No.  
“You like Declan.” Ronan accused him.  
Adam flushed, still feeling like his brain was sinking under icy water while his body sweat in the heat. “I do not!” Adam said.  
“If you could touch someone with your eyes, you’d have committed a crime.” Ronan snapped.  
“I was thinking about the man in the river. I thought it was him. You knew that.” Adam said hotly, his cheeks flushing, he hadn’t thought he had been noticed. He hoped that Declan hadn’t had the same thought.  
“You didn’t look at me like that when you found out it was me in the river.” Adam suddenly came full force back into his body, he was sure he had heard the jealousy in Ronan’s words. He lifted his eyes to look firmly into Ronan’s.  
“I already felt-” Adam searched his brain for the word, the right word to describe feeling like you were both burning and freezing at the same time. To describe the feeling of having a heart attack and being more than willing to surrender to it. “Overwhelmed by you. Before I knew you were the man, I already felt like we had a connection, something I did NOT feel for Declan. I have been carrying a crush on that man in the river since I saw him. Then when I got here, and I thought it was Declan, I didn’t feel anything, mild irritation, and a good share of guilt about it, but with you-” This was too hard, there were no words that he had ever learned that could describe his feelings and he just felt like it was getting messier and less clear and he felt miserable with disappointment in himself.  
“So you do want to see me naked again.”  
Adam’s head shot up to glare at Ronan, who was looking at him with this fondness that wasn’t fair. They didn’t know each other well enough for Ronan Lynch to look at him like that. It made something soft pool in Adam’s chest. “I take it back. If you think I want to see you as anything but hard at work on this garden you’re a fool.” Adam huffed, the red in his cheeks flushing his entire body and leaving him uncomfortably hot in the already stifling weather.  
“I’ll make sure to let you know what days I’m planning on heading down to the river.”  
Adam made an uncomfortable and rude noise at Ronan’s teasing. He was breathing heavy, and he wasn’t exactly sure what was happening between them. Was Ronan uninterested in him? Was Ronan amused by his confession? Adam pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth to try and ground himself and he refused to look in Ronan’s direction. He didn’t know what to do next. Attempt to make an obvious escape and bury himself so deep in the forest that no-one would ever find him again?  
He felt Ronan’s hand on his shoulder and he jumped, he had to force himself to look at Ronan to see what was coming next.  
“Can I kiss you, Adam?”  
Adam stopped breathing, but for logical reasons, he was waiting for the lack of oxygen to kick his body into survival mode, because he couldn’t think with Ronan this close, asking him that question. Finally Adam burst out with an exhale, his brain was back sharply assessing the damage, and finally, his higher functioning was back, and it was that higher functioning that ordered his head to nod.  
Ronan leaned forward and gently pressed his lips against Adam’s own. All movement in Adam’s body stilled, the sense of peace that was unique to Cabeswater, started to fill his body, and calm his racing heart, his brain started to soothe itself, and Adam’s body took a step closer, his mouth tilting up slightly to readjust the pressure of Ronan’s lips more to his liking. Adam moved a hand to slid around Ronan’s waist, pulling his own shoulders back so he could get more coverage of his chest against Ronan’s chest. Ronan kissed like he did everything else, with honesty, and a softness that was surprising considering the look of him. Ronan’s hand had moved to cup the side of his face, and Adam felt a sensation that was brand new but had an undefinable sense of familiarity. He felt seen, he felt known, which should be impossible for a man he hardly knew. A man whose dream he had been living in for so long, a dream where he found himself and his own purpose and worth.  
Ronan pulled back and took a ragged breath in, “Adam, everything about you charms and enchants me. I can’t fucking stand looking at you some times.” Ronan said softly. “From the moment I met you, I longed for you. I thought I might actually die when you looked at Declan like-” Ronan bit off the rest.   
“How dramatic,” Adam said softly, his breath pressing against Ronan’s skin.  
“Asshole.” Ronan huffed a chuckle. “It’s hot. Let's go inside.” Ronan said sliding his hand down to take Adam’s hand in his own.


	10. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Declan is here,” Adam said quietly, the energy shift was subtle but it was clear to Adam who knew how to listen.  
> “No, he’s not,” Ronan argued with his eyes still closed.  
> “He’s arrived on horseback with someone else. He’s on his way inside.” Adam smirked down at Ronan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. We have reached the end. Thanks to Bershka (First and most frequent commenter), mrsdrsox, hollyanneg, ktrie and my girl MediocreK for commenting as I was posting. I really appreciate you taking the time to read through this and to comment. You guys are great.

Adam sat against the stone wall of the garden, Ronan’s head in his lap, his eyes closed. The garden was finished, but it would never really be complete, it was a living thing and needed tending regularly. The month that had passed with Ronan and Adam working side by side to build this place right by Ronan’s home had been better than anything Adam could remember experiencing. Ronan was impatient but gentle. When they kissed he could get so still Adam would worry he’d frozen in place. When they went to bed at night though it felt like Ronan was everywhere at once a blur of motion and if he was asked to stop he might die. It was most definitely for Ronan’s sake Adam didn’t tell him to stop often. Ronan’s language was more and more abrasive the more Adam got to know him, but Ronan’s heart revealed itself to be more tender and thoughtful the worse his mouth got. Ronan was a contradiction of safety, security, recklessness and adrenaline.  
Adam opened his eyes to look around the garden Ronan had decided to make. He felt at peace here. He felt the garden was a reflection of the kind of person he had always wanted to be. Cabeswater and Ronan were inseparable to him now, they were the same energy. Here in the garden, right beside Ronan’s home, he felt himself, separate to the towering forest of Ronan, it was smaller, and unassuming, filled with functional vegetable patches, and herb pots, berry bushes around the outside, and yet some of the most amazing rose bushes Adam had ever seen were rooted in the garden as well. The metal archway was draped in flowing, flowering vines that curled and clung to the hard metal foundation, turning its harshness softer and more beautiful. This place was a place belonging to Adam, created by Ronan to try and capture everything he saw in Adam.  
Adam tried to look over his shoulder but his view was blocked by the stone wall. “Declan is here,” Adam said quietly, the energy shift was subtle but it was clear to Adam who knew how to listen.  
“No, he’s not,” Ronan argued with his eyes still closed.  
“He’s arrived on horseback with someone else. He’s on his way inside.” Adam smirked down at Ronan.  
“He could fucking learn to send a message.” Ronan sighed and rolled off Adam to sit up reluctantly.  
“You’d go missing if you knew he was coming.” Adam pointed out and stood. He offered his hand to Ronan.  
“We could go missing now, he wouldn’t know,” Ronan suggested batting at Adam’s hand bluntly refusing to acknowledge he had company or that they had to break the spell they had been under.  
“Lynch,” Adam said putting a hand on his hip.  
“Ohh he arrives and suddenly you can’t remember my name?” Ronan asked smirking up at him.  
“Which one are you again?” Adam asked, “The cute one, or the asshole who lives here?”  
Ronan’s eyes flashed at the challenge, and Adam slipped through the archway walking slowly backwards so he could look over the stone wall as Ronan climbed to his feet and marched forward, looking as if he intended to walk straight through the wall.  
“If you damage that Basil plant-” Adam threatened, anticipating Ronan launching himself over the wall.  
“You’ll do what?” Ronan said his lips twitching.  
“I’ll tell Declan you have a new found love of socialising and want to go for a visit to the city when he goes back.” Adam chuckled, looking him up and down, leaning forward onto the balls of his feet, the anticipation building.  
“Is that a threat Parrish?” Ronan put one of his hands on the wall.  
Adam watched Ronan not saying anything, his eyes goaded him enough that he didn’t need to add verbal confirmation. Adam was on high alert now, tension zinging up and down his body as he watched. The moment Ronan vaulted the wall, Adam spun and ran for the back entrance to the castle. Adam made it inside and slammed the wooden door shut, leaning against it, leveraging his back against the door and his heels in the stone of the floor. He heard the thump of Ronan on the other side. He reached for a broom, and when the next thump came, Adam moved quickly to jam the broom in the door handle and through the bolt hole. There was another thump and a curse, and Adam laughed, he jogged into the main foyer, expecting Ronan to already be on his way around the outside of the castle.  
Adam stopped the jog when he came across the other Lynch brother. “Declan, it’s a pleasure to see you again. Ronan will be with you in a moment.” Adam heard sounds of feet on the outside path and squeaked, “Excuse me.” He said and ran into the dining room, taking cover at the head of the table, where he could watch the entranceway.  
Ronan’s shaved head burst through the front door before the rest of him, and Adam’s heart pounded with delight. Just the sight of him, even when he was in pursuit, made him want to explode in happiness. “Say hello to your brother,” Adam called, holding the back of the chair as Ronan came into the dining room, and stared Adam down with a grin.  
“Come here,” Ronan demanded.  
“You’ll never catch me, I’m faster.” Adam taunted.  
Ronan darted up the right side of the table, and Adam sprinted down the left side effectively swapping places. “You’re so rude you have a guest,” Adam called gleefully.  
Ronan darted down the left side of the table stopping halfway down, Adam darted forward to match Ronan’s position on the opposite side.  
“By all means, get it out of your system now. Gansey and I have travelled for eight hours in the sun to make it here, neither of us has the energy for this level of activity.” Declan waved his hand dismissively.  
“Gansey? You mean Ronan’s best friend Gans- Ooooph.” Adam said as Ronan crashed into him, and lifted him off his feet, throwing him over his shoulder, like a hunter would carry a deer. “Stop!” Adam laughed, reaching for any purchase he could grab on Ronan’s waist, and then shifted to his hip, trying to leverage himself away from Ronan so that he wasn’t entirely upside down, with the blood rushing to his head.  
Ronan jostled Adam back and forth on his shoulders, strutting towards his brother now. “Where’s Dick?” Ronan asked by way of hello.  
“Ronan I’m going to pass out.” Ronan ignored him.  
“What do you call that thing outside?” This from a cheerful voice that Adam had never heard before, he shifted as best he could over Ronan’s shoulder, Ronan jiggling him when he tried.  
“Stop wiggling,” Ronan ordered.  
“I was going to call it a Death Wagon, but Parrish suggested because it’s a mix of a horseless carriage and a cart that we just call it a car for short.”  
“Absolutely marvellous.” The voice said filled with genuine delight, Adam had managed to see some light brown hair and pink trousers, but that was it.  
“This is Parrish, he’s my new gardener.” Ronan taunted.  
“Seriously, I’m getting light-headed,” Adam responded, which was enough for Ronan to put him back on the ground and hold his waist as he wobbled a little.  
“He’s the magician I was telling you about,” Declan explained to the utterly perfect looking man. Well, he looked utterly perfect if you were a creature who haunted the courts of kings and queens, and slung political savoir-faire about with ease. He looked exactly like that kind of person, which was a complete disconnect from what Ronan was. It was intimidating, and Adam’s throat constricted tightly.  
“It’s truly my honour to meet you.” The man who could only be Gansey gushed, holding out his hand, and looking him up and down.  
Instead of taking the offered hand, Adam’s eyes went white and his vines started to climb up Gansey’s legs and down his well-defined arms to curl through his fingers. “What a truly magnificent creature.” Gansey cooed watching the vines and looking at Adam with something amazed and delighted in his eyes.  
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Adam said slowly reaching for Gansey’s hand.  
“I told you he would love it. Make sure to check his journal before he leaves, he’ll have pages on you.” Ronan warned.  
“Have you read the article by the Wizard High Chancellor on Nature Alchemy? It’s quite fascinating.”


End file.
